


precious

by silveryyy



Series: Amasai Week 2020 [4]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Killing Game (Dangan Ronpa), Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Amasai Week, Amasai Week 2020, Angst, Attempted Kidnapping, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, M/M, Memory/treasure, No New Dangan Ronpa V3 Spoilers, rantaro's sisters appear a lot in this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:14:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23235292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveryyy/pseuds/silveryyy
Summary: Interlaken was one of Rantaro’s favourite places to travel to when he was alive. He’d only taken Shuichi here once, but there was a certain lightness about him when he was here. There’s just a certain tranquility about this place that makes people feel relaxed, a sort of… thoughtful quietness that makes it really appealing and wonderful. If it weren’t for the fact that Rantaro had lost a sister here, Shuichi thinks to himself, laughing a little, the guy would’ve probably adored this place so much he’d have moved here after graduation. The place was just completely impossible to hate.His laugh is cut short, though, as he realizes that Rantaro never actually made it through to graduation, that he never even made it out to the world he so deserved a place in.-"i hope they're happy, and laughing, at every new dayand if they just couldn't take it, they won't run away..." -theory of happinessshuichi tries to finish rantaro's last wishes.
Relationships: Amami Rantaro/Saihara Shuichi
Series: Amasai Week 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1664734
Comments: 5
Kudos: 18





	precious

**Author's Note:**

> i suppose putting a song lyric in the summary is now a thing for me lol (speaking of this, if you're reading this and you haven't ever listened to ouma's theory of happiness (animatic is on youtube) then what are you waiting for?? go watch it it's great
> 
> anyways! written for amasai week day five! prompt is memory/treasure and i tried to incorporate both! this is more narrative than my other ones because i was rushing and ran out of time lmao but hopefully you guys enjoy it :))))

Mornings in Switzerland are always so serene.

Shuichi likes standing on the porch of the small wooden cottage he’s currently staying in in the mornings, and watching the country wake up. It starts with the rays of golden light shooting across the horizon and bathing the entire town in a soft sheen of delicate coral, and from where he stands, he can see the small boats start moving across the lake, creating ripples in the perfectly still mirror, and the shops start opening gradually, turning on their lights one by one. The soft morning sunlight dances upon the meadows dotted around Interlaken, twirling on every flower, leaping from leaf to leaf, encircling around the stems, and as the Swiss people start pouring out onto the street, he can see them stop every other second to greet their neighbours. Even the sun seems to beam at the small town, at its friendliness and politeness, as it sends its soft sunbeams to warm the cardinal rooftops and brighten the alabaster walls of the small houses lining the cobblestone pavements. It’s quiet, and wholesome, and very new to Shuichi, who’s almost lived in the city all his life.

Interlaken was one of Rantaro’s favourite places to travel to when he was alive. He’d only taken Shuichi here once, but there was a certain lightness about him when he was here. There’s just a certain tranquility about this place that makes people feel relaxed, a sort of… thoughtful quietness that makes it really appealing and wonderful. If it weren’t for the fact that Rantaro had lost a sister here, Shuichi thinks to himself, laughing a little, the guy would’ve probably adored this place so much he’d have moved here after graduation. The place was just completely impossible to hate. 

His laugh is cut short, though, as he realizes that Rantaro never actually made it through to graduation, that he never even made it out to the world he so deserved a place in. Shuichi smiles bitterly as he’s struck with longing, and slight grief- even six years after Rantaro’s death back when they were both seventeen, he’s still not really _over_ his first love, but the pain has dulled over time. He’s accepted it, in a way, and he’s moving on, but he’s not ready to let go. His hands automatically fly to the necklace he still wears around his neck at all times, smiling faintly in relief as his fingers find the cool, smooth surface of the sea glass, and swipes at his eyes as he feels the tears come to his eyes. He misses his best friend so _much_ , misses him every single day, but at least, now he knows his friend will always be with him even in death. The constant coolness of the sea glass’ surface almost feels like the green haired boy’s ghostly touch, and Shuichi looks towards the horizon, where the sun continues to paint its canvas with soft creamy watercolours, brushing thin layers of yellows and pinks and lilacs across a world of fluffy cloud pillows rimmed with silvery light, where he sees his friend smiling at him in encouragement in his mind.

“Shuichi-kun?” The man turns around, and standing at the door of the cottage is a familiar girl, dressed in casual t-shirt and jeans, and dragging her backpack behind her. Her long navy locks are swept into a braid, and a daisy is woven into her hair, and Shuichi can’t help but think of how Rantaro used to braid Rina’s hair in the exact same intricate way.

“Amaka,” he greets his best friend’s eldest sister, as she makes her way over to him. Amaka isn’t that much younger than he or the late Rantaro- only a month or two younger, actually- and she seems to act like a responsible, protective mother to Rantaro’s sisters (the ones who have been found, at least. Shuichi’s spent three years looking, sometimes accompanied by Rina, and he’s found five of them for Rantaro, but he won’t stop looking, won’t rest or pause, not until he finds all of them and brings them to their brother, the brother who longed to reunite all of them for his entire life). “You’re up early today.”

Amaka stares outside, but not at the town- she’s looking at the forest, the forest that is their destination every day. It leads right into the Alps, and Shuichi and Amaka have been here for a month, searching every inch of the forest and the mountains beyond it, hoping desperately for a single clue, a single shred of evidence that might, just might, lead them to the treasure they’re looking for. “Thought we could start earlier today. Might have more of a chance of finding Naoko.”

They’re here to find her, the girl Rantaro always described as someone who laughed so much he knew no one else who could match her in laughter, to bring her home, and Shuichi vows not to go anywhere until they’ve found her.

Shuichi finds himself in these trips, finds purpose as he searches and brings home the Amami siblings, tries to finish his friend, his lover’s last wish. He isn’t as resilient as Rantaro, isn’t even half as talented at adventuring as the boy is, but he’s determined to finish this mission no matter what.

He just hopes he finds all of them in time.

_Rantaro follows the trail steadily as if he’s walked the path a million different times before. Shuichi watches as the lemongrass eyes travel over the countless trees, the piles of fallen autumn leaves littered all over the forest floor. His eyes miss nothing, not even the smallest detail, and it’s mesmerizing to Shuichi. Rantaro’s in his element when he searches and adventures, and it’s clear in the way he concentrates and focuses, with eagerness in his eyes, and despite the fact that they’re searching for a lost sister of his, for someone he loved very much that was lost long ago, there’s a faint smile hanging on Rantaro’s face._

_He stops, though, at one point, deep into the woods, and he stares at the area as his expression completely changes, with a wistfulness that breaks Shuichi’s heart. Rantaro looks back at him, and he can tell, as their eyes meet, the utter misery in Rantaro’s eyes as tears threaten to fall from them. He almost gives in to his compulsiveness and goes to hug him, but restrains himself, knowing that Rantaro may not want the other boy touching him._

_“This is where we realized Naoko wasn’t with us,” Rantaro says, and swipes at his eyes as he fails to stop the tears from falling down, but his lower lip is quivering slightly, and Shuichi knows he’s definitely going to cry. “We looked, and looked, but we just, we never found her.”_

_It’s so much weight, Shuichi thinks bitterly, for a fourteen-year-old boy to carry- so much grief and pain forced onto Rantaro, for him to carry. Rantaro is strong, strong in a way Shuichi could never be, in carrying the pain and loss of his sisters around with him, and still is able to smile at other people and comfort them so well, is able to manage the pain so well that no one notices until he tells them, is strong enough to be able to face the trauma and confide in other people, expose his weaknesses to people he trusts, which is never easy._

_He looks back at the trail behind him, and sees in his mind, the broken family travelling along the path, smiling despite all that they’ve lost. He sees them panic as they realize one of them is missing, watches as Rantaro’s mother (Naoko is one of his biological sisters, even if they don’t share the same green hair colour) wails in distress and his father head over to comfort her, watches as Rantaro and Amaka share a glance and instantly run back along the trail they came from, only to return after a while with gloomy and pained expressions._

_Shuichi walks over, putting a hand tentatively on Rantaro’s shoulder, and when the latter boy doesn’t flinch from his touch, Shuichi takes his hands. “We’ll find her,” he reassures the younger boy quietly, “we’ll find Naoko, and everyone else. One day, you’ll see your family together again. I promise.”_

Golden light filters through the gaps in the trees overhead and projects onto the forest floor, fading in and out through the light mist that shrouds the forest, small sparks of gold fluttering in the hazy light. The sunlight slants down the sides of the trees, wrapping and entwining around the tree trunks, giving the trunks that weaved in and out of the ground a rosy sheen. A thick carpet of viridescent grass spreads across the forest floor, and small white blossoms are splayed around the clearing, the randomness bringing out how completely _natural_ the landscape is.

There isn’t a marked pathway through the forest, but Amaka, who was there when Naoko was lost and is unable to erase the traumatizing memories from her mind, remembers the exact way the family had woven through the thick mass of greenery all those years ago, and Shuichi had followed her through the thicket for so many days, he’d memorized the route by now, knows the way back on track even if he wanders off to take a look at something, knows exactly the path out of the forest. 

So, when they reach the woods, Shuichi doesn’t hesitate to suggest that they search individually and meet up back at their rented cottage when it gets dark, and Amaka doesn’t hesitate to agree, immediately diverging into another trail and disappearing into the fog. He watches until her shadow vanishes into the woods, and then heads down another pathway through the forest.

He can’t help but remember the first time he’d come here. Rantaro, not Amaka, had led the way then, taking Shuichi around the forest, searching relentlessly. Rantaro had broken down when they reached the point where they’d lost Naoko, and Shuichi had promised they’d find her no matter what. They hadn’t found the girl that time, but Shuichi is determined this time, he _will_ find Naoko, and bring her home.

Even though it’s summer, not autumn this time, Shuichi would never mistake this forest, this trail, for another. Despite the colour change, it still looks almost exactly the same, just that emerald has substituted for the oranges and browns that painted the forest nine years ago. Everywhere he looks, he can see Rantaro, bending over to look at footprints he found in the ground, or inspecting things he noticed around, or even just turning back at Shuichi and smiling faintly in encouragement despite Rantaro’s own distress. God, he _misses_ his best friend so much.

But what happens next is not something he expects. One second, he is alone on the path, and the next moment, he’s being grabbed by someone, and he cries out as he’s forced onto his knees as another person near him yells out and more people swarm out from behind the trees. _Kidnappers._

“Amaka!” he calls out desperately, hoping his companion would hear him, but there’s no response, and he calls again, louder this time, but something is stuffed in his mouth and someone puts a sack over his head and his backpack is snatched from his back, and he tries to scream, but to no avail.

He wonders briefly if this is what happened to Naoko. Maybe she dragged behind to look at something, and got kidnapped just like this. He wonders how Amaka will react when she finds out that her travel companion, her late brother’s best friend, is nowhere to be found. They’d grown quite close over the course of looking for Naoko, and he dreads the thought of her being distraught over his disappearance. He thinks of Rantaro, of what he’ll think of this whole ordeal. He hopes, even prays, like Rantaro once told him Inori did, that he wouldn’t be too worried over Shuichi.

He can’t see anything, can’t understand anything the people carrying him are saying- he doesn’t speak German or French or Italian. He struggles, and he feels the necklace still around his neck, the gem cool over his heart, and feels a little relieved that his treasure, his most precious belonging, is still with him.

That is, until something hits him in the gut, and everything goes black.

When he comes to his senses, he is in a small white room, tied up against the wall, his hands bound together. The chamber has no windows, no openings. He feels the fear and worry pounding in his heart, feels the dread settle in his stomach.

In front of him are five people- five strangers. Four are bulky, armed men, in camouflage clothes, seemingly very strong and armed- if Shuichi were to guess an occupation had he met them elsewhere, he would have thought they were arm wrestlers- one of them is guarding the door while two are sitting in front of him, the last one next to him. A younger girl stands to the side of the room, in normal T-shirt and jeans, not unlike the attire Amaka picked out this morning. The girl’s upper face is covered by a white mask, but Shuichi can see that she has fair skin, with light chestnut brown hair tied into a ponytail (he’s reminded of an upperclassmen of his and Rantaro’s back in high school, Makoto Naegi. He had the exact same shade of hair colour). 

One of the men in front of him says something in what Shuichi assumes is German. Not knowing what to do, he splutters in english, “I- I don’t speak German-?”

The men all look confused for a second and start to argue, until the girl speaks. Her voice is quiet, but it’s melodic, and Shuichi thinks to himself that her laugh would sound absolutely beautiful- if she laughed at all, that is. Her expression seems so stoic.

Just thinking about laughter leads his train of thought to Naoko. He prays to whatever deity is out there, that Amaka would find her sister, even if he’s not there to share in the burden, and can take Naoko home. He’s never met Naoko- he’s only ever met Shiori, Sora, Riku and Rina before Rantaro’s untimely demise, but he’s seen enough pictures of the girl to know her on sight. 

The masked girl first says something Shuichi doesn’t understand to the men, then turns to Shuichi. “I’m sorry,” she says in perfect English, to his shock., “we didn’t realize you didn’t speak the language. Where are you from and why were you in our territory?”

He hesitates for a bit, then says, in halting English (Rantaro was always the better one at languages out of the two of them), “I’m Shuichi Saihara. I, uh, come from Japan. I’m looking for my best friend’s sister, who was lost long ago..”

The girl’s eyes widen, and she switches languages again, this time speaking Japanese fluently, with a perfect Japanese accent. “I apologize, I didn’t realize you were from Japan, Saihara-kun.” Shuichi’s jaw almost drops in surprise- he’s reluctantly impressed by the girl’s language abilities. She must be here to act asn translator. “We’re from Italy, and whoever strays across our territory belongs to us. That, unfortunately, includes you.”

Shuichi’s eyes narrow. “You’re kidnappers. Slavers.”

The girl shrugs nonchalantly. “We need to make a living, too, Saihara-kun. The only question I have to ask you is this: are you hiding any money or precious objects we don’t know about? We’d hate to have to search you.”

Shuichi grits his teeth in disgust. “Why should i cooperate with a gang of kidnappers? Besides, everything I own is in my backpack, which you took.”

The girl smiles grimly. “These people aren’t afraid to kill. You’ll lose your life if you even try to rebel.”

If Shuichi didn’t know better, he would’ve classified the emotion that flashes across her eyes in the blink of an eye as fear.

She continues after Shuichi remains silent. “I’m assuming we have all your belongings, since you aren’t saying anything. I’ll convey the message to the others, then.”

She speaks to the men for a while, and they converse loudly for a bit, until the girl turns to him again, this time with her eyes full of wariness. “Saihara-kun, they say you’ve got a necklace. You shouldn’t lie to us.”

Shuichi’s eyes widen as his hands fly to his neck, and sure enough, the sea glass necklace from Rantaro is still there. He grabs it desperately. “It’s priceless! It’s only a treasure to me, please, don’t take it!”

The girl frowns as she translates, and the man closest to him growls, and leans forward. Shuichi tries to turn away, but he’s hit in the stomach again and he cries out as the necklace is snatched off him, and for the first time in three years, Shuichi feels completely alone and vulnerable. He struggles against his restraints, trying to reach out to get the sea glass back in vain. He feels the tears come to his eyes and fall down his face, and this time Rantaro’s voice isn’t there to comfort him, isn’t there with him, and he feels so empty inside.

The necklace is passed around by the man, dangling from their fingers as they laugh gleefully, and the girl tenses as she sees the necklace. More unidentifiable emotions flash across her face, but the mask covers most of it, and Shuichi is too caught up in his mind to tell.

At last, the girl turns to him again after conversing with the men. Her attitude, Shuichi notices with a start, seems to have completely changed- she seems to have let her guard down. “Saihara-kun, we’ll be taking you to Italy tomorrow. We’ll see you then. I’ll come by at night to guard the door, and bring you food.”

With that, they all leave, leaving Shuichi alone, alone without the one thing that anchors him to life, the one person that guides him to the light, and with the memories of Rantaro fresh in his mind, he cries.

He’s woken up in the middle of the night by someone shaking him harshly. 

He opens his eyes to see the girl from the afternoon, her expression completely guarded as she shakes him awake. She wordlessly slices through the ropes securing him to the door, and yanks him by the arm. “Come on,” she whispers.

“Where are you taking me?” he can’t trust this girl, not after she indirectly caused him to lose his one most important possession, not when she’s so directly affiliated with a gang of kidnappers.

The girl’s jade green eyes flash, and she pulls him out into the moonlight. Shuichi can’t struggle, can’t lash out against the girl, not when his hands are tied and she has the upper hand. She leads him across roads and parts of the forest Shuichi had never seen before, until they reach the edge of the woods and emerge out into the open. 

There’s not a single person or building in sight. The night casts a deep sapphire sheen over the grass, but the moon illuminates the clearing a little, shining on the flowers and the tips of the grass. It shines on him, shines on the road before him. But he cannot run.

At last, she turns to face him, and her ivory mask seems to glow in the bright moonlight. “What’s your relationship to my brother?” her voice is soft, and desperate, as she asks him.

Shuichi’s eyes widen. “Your brother?”

The girl holds up a necklace- his necklace, with the sea glass on it, smooth with its aqua colours swirling like a whirlpool, seemingly untouched. “This necklace. It was my brother’s.”

 _Wait, but this belonged to Rantaro, and had belonged to Rantaro since I knew him. That could only mean- but no! The girl doesn’t even smile, let alone laugh…_ “Who are you?” he asks her instead.

The girl doesn’t answer him. “You said you were looking for your best friend’s sister,” she says quietly, and Shuichi can hear hurt and pain in her voice. “What’s your best friend’s name?”

Shuichi hesitates, then replies. “Rantaro Amami,” he says, taking his chances, and he knows, by the girl’s reactions, that his guess is correct. Her eyes widen, and her jaw drops, and Shuichi can see concern and worry and relief in her eyes. “You’re Naoko, aren’t you?”

The girl takes off her mask, and Shuichi recognizes her straight away. Her features are just like Rantaro’s, the same bone structure, and the same shape of their eyes. Her chestnut brown hair and jade green eyes bathe in the glow of the moon, and tears stream down her face, glistening in an ethereal light. She is unmistakably Naoko, the girl he’s here to look for, and she confirms it by nodding. “Where is my brother?” she whispers.

Shuichi feels his own tears swimming in his eyes as he tells Naoko of all her sisters missing, of how Rantaro died, how he’d gotten the necklace, of the three years he’d spent locked away and the three years he’d spent relentlessly searching for Rantaro’s siblings. His heart breaks as Naoko starts to sob, burying her head in her hands. He feels so sorry for her- she’d lost her brother for years and years, and thought she’d finally find him again when she saw Rantaro’s necklace, only to be told that her brother had been dead for six years.

At last, she looks up, and wordlessly hands him back the necklace. “I’m sorry for taking it,” she murmurs, “thank you for coming to look for me. But I’m past the point of no return now, I can’t come home with you. I’m sorry.”

Shuichi grabs her hands, “Naoko- just leave, leave the gang, come home with us. We can book the flight now, and leave tomorrow. They’ll never find you again.”

Naoko’s eyes are full of terror as she shakes her head fervently. “I can’t! When I was taken, so many years ago, I made a bargain to avoid getting sold. They took the life out of me, took the laughter and joy and all the things I used to feel out of me, see? They own me, don’t you understand?” her voice is desperate, and the fear and guilt in her eyes is too much to bear. “I can’t come with you, they’d kill you all, and then me! I, I can’t let Taro’s best friend die, I can’t let his memory die. You must leave without me.”

She unslings the backpack from her back- his backpack, Shuichi realizes. She offers it to him, and he takes it with shaking hands. “I’ll take you to where you’re staying, out of this mess of a forest. You must leave, and you must never come back for me, understand?”

Shuichi shakes his head. “I can’t leave you. I promised your brother I would bring you all home.”

A tear runs down Naoko’s cheek, and she brushes it away. “Saihara-kun, if in another life where I’d just gotten lost and not kidnapped, I would willingly come with you a thousand times over, pay my respects to the brother who loved me so much. I would go home, honour his memory. But now… I can’t leave and put you all in danger. That’s not what Rantaro would have wanted.”

“You can!” Shuichi insists, “I have friends in the police force, friends who have influence worldwide. We can protect you, if you come with me.”

Naoko looks away from him, “Come on, I’ll take you back to where you’re staying.” He can hear her voice shaking and breaking as she speaks, struggling to put her mask back on. “The wooden cottages, right? That’s where we stayed when I was taken.”

Shuichi nods, and opens his mouth to speak and try to convince Naoko, again, but she’s already started across the meadow.

_Rantaro, if i was truly meant to do this, then- why is this so hard?_

They arrive soon, at the doorstep of the cottage Shuichi is staying in. Naoko, still not looking at him, knocks at the door, and Shuichi opens his mouth to warn her of his companion, but it’s too late.

The door opens, and Amaka peeks out, her hair still braided and clothes still the ones she’d worn the previous day- she must be trying to call her sisters, or her friends in Japan. Naoko freezes in shock at the sight of her sister, while Amaka’s gaze lands on Shuichi first.

“Shuichi-kun!” she exclaims in relief, and runs forward to hug him. “I was so worried! Where have you-” she breaks off as she notices the other girl next to him, and her face is taken over by shock.

“Naoko-” she whispers.

“Hello, Amaka,” the girl in question says as her voice trembles, but before she finishes, Amaka runs forward, and captures her sister in a tight embrace. Naoko starts crying, and despite the tears running down Amaka’s face, she still comforts the younger girl, holding her close as Naoko sobs into her shoulder and buries her face in her shirt. Naoko starts talking, telling her sister about what had happened to her as she cries and cries, and Amaka listens quietly, holding on tight to her sister as if she’d lose her again any second.

Hopefully, Amaka will be able to convince Naoko to come with them, back to Japan. It’s where she belongs.

Shuichi looks up to the sky as his hands instinctively go to touch the necklace, and the sea glass is cool as ever. He sees Rantaro in the night, smiling and wiping away tears of his own as he watches his sisters hug, and Shuichi smiles, relieved.

For Shuichi knows, that the memory of Rantaro is his most precious treasure of all, and as long as he has that by his side, he’s completely and utterly content.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry for slight cliffhanger lol it shall be resolved when i post the fic tomorrow!
> 
> yea well i don't really like this one smh like i'm okay with the concept i just rushed it a bit too much???? 
> 
> i don't have much to say i'm sorry for the angst lol to balance it back out tmr's gonna be fluff but like,,, i'm writing a lot of shuichi centric ones i'm sorry it's hard to write from rantaro's perspective when he's, uh, dead
> 
> thank you if you read this far!!! it means so much to me :DDD stay safe everyone!
> 
> -arisa


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